You Can’t Win Em All…
May 30, 2010 at 8:14 am | Posted in Charlie Haeger, Garret Anderson, Hiroki Kuroda, Scott Elbert | 7 Comments…but you especially can’t win any when Garret Anderson is batting second in the lineup. I get that he has to get a start every now and then if he’s going to be here, and circumstances don’t get much more favorable than against a junkballer righty in Coors Field. But hitting him second? Well, why wouldn’t you want to make sure that he gets more at-bats then Kemp and Manny? Predictably, he struck out twice without getting a hit.
It’s time for the Steve Dilbeck response lightning round!
1) No, I’m not worried about Hiroki Kuroda. Not yet. He was so solid to start the season – and really, whenever he’s been healthy since arriving in LA – that I won’t panic over a few lesser starts. Especially not when this one was in Colorado, where he’s never been successful.
2) I get questioning the Charlie Haeger decision, but not for the same reasons. Joe Torre’s insistence that John Ely needs an extra day of rest means that you’re using the 5th starter sooner than you need to, regardless of who that is. I haven’t seen anything in Ely that suggests he’s tiring already, so shouldn’t the goal here be to use offdays to minimize the use of starter #5 until Vicente Padilla returns in a few weeks?
As for Haeger himself, you know I’ve always been a big fan, though I do wonder why they’re showing him such dedication this year when he hasn’t been great after not giving him any rope last year when he was killing it. So I’m happy to see him get a shot on the off-chance his foot “injury” was legit, because this team still badly needs a viable starter option out of then pen when Padilla returns, and as nicely as Carlos Monasterios filled in, I’m not sure I’m ready to put that on him yet.
That said, I do wonder if Haeger isn’t being set up to fail. Who brings an injured pitcher off the DL to start on TWO days rest?
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Ugly outing by Scott Elbert last night. Then again, he couldn’t get the ball over the plate in AAA, so I’m not sure what made anyone think that’d magically change in Coors Field. I bet he doesn’t get a chance to redeem himself before getting shipped out, and we don’t see him again until September.
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I’ve seen some suggestions that the Dodgers ought to go after Dontrelle Willis, who clearly could use a change of scenery after getting DFA’d by Detroit. He hasn’t shown anything in about three years, so I can’t really see the interest. That said, the AAA rotation has Tim Corcoran & Seth Etherton in it (plus whomever is temporarily filling in with Elbert in the bigs and James McDonald on the DL), so it’s not like giving him a crack would bump anyone important. If he really wanted to try to make it back home to California, and was willing to sign a minor-league deal at the minimum, I don’t see the harm. I’d just consider it extremely unlikely.
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The decision to pitch Charlie Haeger on Tuesday to give everyone rest, but pitch him last night in the minors on the surface seems to make little sense. Given that most people have suspected that the foot injury was a phantom one, it adds to a greater quid pro quo. I wonder if in order to clear the roster spot earlier they said to Haeger, go down see if you can fix yourself with the help of Hough, and will make sure to give you a chance in the rotation again.
If it doesn’t work out your gone! No proof
Comment by Louis— May 30, 2010 #
I’m stupefyingly annoyed. Have tickets (really good ones) for Tuesday night and was greatly looking forward to seeing Ely close up.
Haeger, not so much.
Comment by Mike— May 30, 2010 #
Looks like you’ll get your wish! Ely starting on Tuesday, Charlie was scratched, and Monestarios is being given a second shot. He will start Wednesday.
Comment by Harrison— May 30, 2010 #
What’s even funnier is Torre unwilling to Pinch-Hit for GA…….
Comment by DodgersFan323— May 30, 2010 #
I couldn’t believe it when I first saw GA in the two hole yesterday, but then I remembered….
I have two theories about why Joe Torre does this:
a) Just to piss us off. (“Ha ha, I’m the manager and you’re not. I can do whatever I want, no matter how crazy.”)
b) He has a serious veteran fetish. (I suspect this is the real answer.)
It’s weird, but that’s Joe. We have to take the bad with the good. He’s not the worst manager in the world — although I do wish he would wake up to the fact that he’s in the National League now, where managers sometimes double-switch when they bring relievers in. Joe’s good at being cool and level headed, but he could really use some help in the strategy department.
On the other hand, this is perhaps the worst Dodger bench I’ve ever seen, and for that we can thank the McCourts.
Comment by mk— May 30, 2010 #
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=30cwqc1&s=6
“If Jamie had slept with John Ely… I’d probably be cool with that” -Frank McCourt
Comment by Ghost of Ortizii Past— May 30, 2010 #
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